We spent 5 nights in Dublin, and this article will be my overview of the highlights of the trip. I’ll include links to my other articles if you are looking for more of a deep dive.

We flew direct to Dublin from Chicago, a short 6.5-ish hour flight. Dublin is SO close to the east coast and middle America, it’s easy to simply spend a long weekend here. This was the original plan, but when booking with Marriott points, you get the fifth night free, so rather than throw away a free hotel night, we ended up staying for five nights instead of just four. We arrived at the Shelbourne Hotel around noon-ish and it was buzzing with conference-goers. Our room was not yet ready, so we took the opportunity to wander around St. Stephen’s Green right across the street. Check out my overview of the parks here! We also took some time to check out Grafton street – the main shopping drag in Dublin.

We came back to the Shelbourne, and there was a bit of a snafu with the room, however we then headed down to the Lord Mayor’s Lounge for some tea around 2:30pm. This is a very traditional tea service in a very famous place, and I highly recommend you check it out if you have time. Check out my review of the afternoon here.

Eventually, we came to our room and just relaxed for the evening. Our room at the Shelbourne was basic, but nice. We had a small dinner later on at No. 27, a very hopping restaurant and bar area at the Shelbourne with delicious food and drinks. You can read all about the hotel here, in my review.

The next day, we were ready to wander around. It was pouring rain, but we walked over to the National Gallery of Ireland (free admission) and checked out the one Caravaggio painting on display there. You can read more about the National Gallery if you click on this link. Also, if you haven’t yet checked out the story behind our Caravaggio obsession, click here!

Afterwards, we wandered around Merrion Square, another large park, and by then it had stopped raining. We headed back to our room to freshen up, because next it was time to visit the Guinness Storehouse, which was a super fun and informative experience, topped off with a pint of the brown stuff and a decent view of the city at the end. Check out all you need to know about the Guinness Storehouse in my full article about it!

After a very jam-packed day, we were ready for dinner. Little did we know this was going to be our absolute BEST dinner in Dublin! We walked down to Camden Street and sat down in a cozy little snug at Delahunt for the evening. The dishes here were innovative, nicely plated, and delicious. The service was cool and not imposing or stuffy in any way. We loved everything about our experience here, and I wrote a pretty darn glowing review of the restaurant here.

The next day was chock full of architectural treats including Dublin Castle, which you can read about here, and the two main (non-Catholic) Cathedrals, St. Patrick’s and Christ Church, which you can read about here. We then had lunch at the Brazen Head Pub, which is the oldest pub in Ireland. All of these spots are pretty close together, but I would recommend spending an hour at Dublin Castle in the morning, then heading over to Christ Church Cathedral for about an hour as well. Then, head up to the Brazen Head for a delicious pint and a traditional, no-frills lunch. They are often playing live music here, and the pub itself is a fun place to check out.

That afternoon, we hung out at The Bank Restaurant and Bar, which is a really cool spot full of a ton of architectural detail, (check out my Instagram reel!) and did some browsing at my favorite used book store in the world, Ulysses. That evening, we had reservations at Glover’s Alley, a one-star Michelin restaurant right on St. Stephen’s Green and close to where we were staying. The experience was good, but not great, and you can read about that here. We still had fun, despite some of the irregularities here, and came back to the hotel pretty wired, so we stayed up and had another cocktail at No. 27 at the Shelbourne.

The next day, we had plans to see a friend who had moved to Dublin a few years back, and we enjoyed having lunch at Brasserie Sixty6. We basically spent the day just wandering around Grafton Street, and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. We stopped in at the National Museum of Ireland (free admission) for a quick peek around. For dinner, we ate at Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, a place I had been to 10 years earlier, and it was still cozy, still delicious, and we definitely ate our fill of steak here! I didn’t do a full review of this place, but I continue to recommend it if you are looking for a cozy and elevated steakhouse experience while in Dublin.

On our last day, we wandered up to The River Liffey and spent the morning at the EPIC Museum, which is all about Irish emigration. It’s a bit of a strange concept, all about Irish folks who have left Ireland, but it was new, and done very thoughtfully with lots of interactive exhibits. I think that if you have some Irish blood flowing through your veins, you would find this museum very enjoyable. Afterwards, we wandered through the Temple Bar area which was already getting decked out for Christmas. This area is old, and beautiful, and as 40-something travelers, I prefer to come here during the day and during the week. On the weekends, it can get super crazy here with drunk tourists.

Finally, we did the thing that everyone has to do when they come to Dublin – we checked out the Book of Kells at Trinity College. There is a very nice exhibit about its history, but just note that when you come to see the book, it is open to only two pages, and it’s behind a lot of glass. No photos are allowed, and it’s honestly pretty anti-climactic. The Long Room Library above, though, is super impressive, and if you like places that smell like old books, you are really gonna love it here. Check out my full overview of that experience here.

For dinner that evening we went to a lovely Italian joint called Cirillo’s. The service there was super pleasant and it was definitely real Italians from Italy running the place. The pizzas looked delicious, and the pastas that we ordered were aggressively al dente, and the sauces were light and nice. We had our final espresso martinis of the weekend here, and they didn’t disappoint either.

Dublin is a great city if you are into beers and books, as the vast majority of things to do here revolve around those two things. Come for a long-ish weekend and you will have plenty of time to see everything that is worth seeing, and even have some downtime to just chill at a few pubs. Dublin has a pretty solid food scene as well, so don’t miss out on a nice dinner or two. Finally, don’t worry about the weather. Yes, it’s going to rain here, and you are going to get a little wet, but even in October, one of the allegedly most cruddy weather months of the year, we had far more sunshine than rain. So next time you have a Guinness, think about a trip to Dublin – the Guinness is definitely better over there!